6.30.16 - June joy statuses

6.27.16 - Craft Alcohol Potluck

Last Saturday I had my unofficial belated birthday celebration by having Shannon, Rachel, Erin, Sarah, and Gennilyn over for a potluck/crafting session.

Before they arrived I woke up in peaceful quiet, showered, finished cleaning a few odds and ends, and started making spinach sausage loaf. At first I was watching GoT S6 while I did it, but then Sarah got there earlier than I expected, so we had some time to visit one-on-one, which was nice. She brought cheese and salami and crackers and a liver pate. Always so food fancy. She also brought a bottle of Bacardi for the potluck and a bottle of wine for me for my birthday. J

While it was just us Mom Skyped so I could see Jack and Clara, although Clara didn’t seem terribly interested and I was a little distracted with getting the spinach sausage loaf in the oven. It was still nice to see them briefly.

Not too long after, Rachel, Erin, and Shannon arrived. Rachel brought chips, 7-layer-dip, zero calorie lemon-lime La Croix, and gin. She made us some very fresh cool lemon lime drinks, and even though I’m usually partial to really sweet stuff, this was great too.  Shannon brought sliced fresh fruit and Erin brought everything needed for chocolate fondue, including the fondue pot! She even brought pretzels for it.

So of course, it being a potluck, we had waaaay more food and drink than we were ever going to consume in one day, but it was fun to try everything. Even the liver pate was good. I don’t think I’ve had anything liver-related before.

Gennilyn got there a little bit late but still in plenty of time and she brought more Angry Orchard with her, plus a Starbucks gift card for my birthday (always a hit!). We sat around the kitchen table and talked for probably at least two hours. We talked about our programs and internships and all that stuff, but we also talked about politics for a while, or at least about how our families handle politics (some are a lot more direct than others) and whether we see eye-to-eye with our parents on political topics. At some point I was talking about the latest attempt to block people on no-fly lists from having guns and I mentioned the ACLU was against it. I was surprised to find that 2-3 of the women there didn’t know what the ACLU was. I guess it’s just easy to forget that we have different focuses in life and maybe I’m more focused on politics than most of my friends.

The whole time we were chatting I enjoyed very cheesy spinach sausage loaf, cherries dipped in dark chocolate fondue, and one Angry Orchard apple cider after another. It was a lot of fun. It was also great that I could just hang out and relax without having to keep checking on and course-altering things for a little toddler.

Eventually we moved from the kitchen table to around the coffee table and at least Erin and I started making some cards. I made a science-ish one for Yvette’s upcoming birthday. I also found a picture of some very serious statues and added party hats and streamers to make a birthday card for Jill. Her birthday isn’t for a while yet but it’s one of the next ones on the horizon. Erin made a very cool and meta wish-you-were-here card of us making cards for Janice.

By the time everyone left I thought it was around 6pm (we had started at noon) but turned out it was closer to 8:15p! Time really flew, plus it was still light out since we were only a few days past the longest day of the year.

Sarah stayed because she was spending the night, so she and I visited more one-on-one talking about relationships and family and stuff. I was so physically tired though that I spent most of that visiting time lying on the living room floor or my bed, depending on which room we were in.

6.23.16 - Empty streets, Spotify, VBA

6.22.16 - beat up car and BBQ smell

6.19.16 - Angry Orchard

We sipped on this for Father's Day (partaaaay).

6.17.16 - My birthday!

I "slept in" until 6:30am, then I started watching the first episodes of Season 6 of GoT while I pumped. Clara stayed asleep until it was nearly time to go, making it very easy for me to get everything ready. I also had time to ask people for suggestions on what to bake to get rid of the smoke smell in my apartment, and to ask people to tell me 3 things they're grateful for as a mini-FB gift to me on my birthday.

I dropped Clara off with Beth and then I went to Safeway to pick up some vanilla extract, because my favorite scent-related suggestion was baking a few capfuls of vanilla extract in a coffee mug in the oven for an hour. As soon as I walked into Safeway I could smell fried chicken. So, even though it was only 8:15am, I bought myself a fried chicken breast. I then went to Starbucks to get my free birthday frappuccino: a double double fudge frap. I do really love that Starbucks offers gold members a free drink every year on our birthdays. I look forward to it every time.

Chocolate whipped cream!

While I sat and waited for my drink I pulled up FB on my phone and read the responses so far to the 3-things-you're-grateful-for status. They make me so happy! It's soothing and pleasant to see how many things are going well in people's lives. I went home, set up the vanilla extract to bake, and enjoyed my extremely delicious and unhealthy breakfast while I listened to Spotify, cleaned up a bit, rearranged some music on my iPod, and uploaded the latest videos off my camera--all things I want to do but usually don't get around to.

I also opened a gift Dad had mailed me like two months ago that he said was for my birthday. It was the Firefly version of Clue! Looking forward to playing that soon. I've always liked Clue and I've long liked Firefly.

Then I drove to Davis and met up with Erin and Shannon for lunch. We went to Blaze Pizzeria, which is very similar to Pieology except it also includes calorie information, which is awesome. We sat outside in beautiful weather and talked about master's and PhD programs and apartments and travel and whatever else. Erin gave me my very Harry Potter themed birthday gift: a copy of Tales of Beetle the Bard and also a chocolate frog complete with the wizard card for Snape. It was awesome.

After lunch Shannon had to go back to lab, but Erin and I walked a few blocks to the movie theater and saw Captain America: Civil War. I won't pretend the plot made any sense but I still really enjoyed it partly because it was fun whispering comments to Erin and partly because there were several parts that made me laugh out loud (mostly Ant Man) and partly because I still love Iron Man.

This guy should beat Captain America every time.

I got caught in traffic driving back to pick up traffic, so I talked to Neil and that helped pass the time a lot. We pretty much discussed the best and worst parts of Civil War and why Iron Man is better than Captain America. After I picked up Clara, Erin met us at the apartment and she brought gourmet cupcakes!

LtoR: Maple bacon, red velvet,
mint chocolate, caramel chocolate,
brownie chocolate, white cream-filled chocolate.

Not too long after Rachel joined us, and she brought me a card with a very sweet note inside, plus some Ghiradelli chocolates and  a Starbucks gift card. So that was awesome. While we were all hanging out I got calls from (1) Don & Merlene, (2) Jack, (3) Dad and apparently everyone at The Robin Hood, and (4) Aaron and Katie, all singing me "Happy Birthday." 

Me with the maple bacon.

Erin, Rachel, (and Clara), and I hung out for several hours, eating cupcakes and drinking apple cider and talking about relationships and children and what it was like when we were kids. It was relaxing and enjoyable. Clara got very comfortable around them and was really cuddly, which they seemed to like too.

After they let I got Clara ready for bed and she went down peacefully, which was her birthday gift to me, I guess. Then I ran and checked the mail and found I had a lovely card from Julie with a Groupon for painting and wine for two from her and Everett, so that's something to look forward to too.

The card Julie made me.

And throughout all of this, the entire day, I got to keep checking my FB wall and my 3-things status to see everyones' well wishes, which I always enjoy. Overall it was a really fun day, and I still have my actual celebration to look forward to next weekend!

6.17.16 - Hot shower

The pic says "last week" because I didn't make this post until later, but the original appreciation was the morning after the fire.

6.16.16 - I'm not on fire.

Today my building--not just a building in my apartment complex but my actual building--caught fire. It turned out to be the apartment one over and behind my own. For about 25 nerve-recking minutes I watched fire fighters run around while the smoke just seemed to keep coming, and I thought there was a pretty good chance nearly everything I owned would be destroyed.

Even during that time, when I was pretty worried, I thought about how if that happened we'd figure it out. Jack was out of town and Clara was with the nanny and I was standing across the parking lot. We were all safe, no one was going to get hurt. So those are my first two joys: (1) my family was safe and (2) I've gotten to a point in life, somehow, where my baseline position is "It'll be okay, we will figure it out." Not to say I wasn't scared--I was. But I didn't feel like it would be insurmountable.

I was also grateful (3) the summer weather has been uncharacteristically cool. It was only maybe 80 out, instead of triple digits. The whole ordeal would've been worse if I was stuck outside in 105 degree weather.

But the fourth joy is that: (4) ultimately, my apartment was unharmed. No fire damage, no water damage, no irrepparable smoke damage. Just soot on the kitchen floor and the place smelling like a BBQ. I was so relieved.

For a few hours one of the fire trucks was parked behind my car, so I couldn't leave. I called Erin, who lives a few towns away, not really close at all, and asked if she could come get me because I was going to need to pick up Clara eventually. She drove between 45 minutes and an hour in rush hour traffic to get me, and even though the trucks had moved by the time she did get here, she stayed to keep me company, which I was grateful for. I was a little shaken up and would like to have someone to hang out with. So (5) is my good friend Erin being so reliable and supportive.

(6) Our nanny, Beth. I called her not long after the fire trucks had arrived to tell her what was happening, and she cheerfully kept Clara 1.5-2 hours longer than she's supposed to have to. She gave Clara and her son a bath, put them in PJs, fed them dinner, all while I was dealing with things on my end. She didn't even want to be paid extra for it (though I did anyway). She's such a sweet woman and I am so grateful to have her help.

So Erin went with me to pick Clara up. Since the water and power were shut off in our building, there was no hurry to go back. We found a Panera and had dinner together. That's (7): Frontega chicken sandwich with tomato soup. (8) Is that Clara was is so easy-going and just went with the schedule disruption and played in her high chair and ate pieces of my chicken and later bounced happily on the bouncy cushioned seat of our booth. What an easy kid.

By the time we got home the water and power were back on, and Erin still stayed and kept Clara company while I cleaned all the soot off the kitchen floor.

So yes, a lot to be grateful for today.

6.12.16 - Little trolley cars.

6.11.16 - Costco family "dates"

Often Jack will take Clara and make Costco runs while I'm working, which is nice because we're getting things done separately and it's efficient. But I also like it when all three of us go together. The Costco we go to sells its pizza and frozen yogurt and etc outside. You can order the food while you're checking out and pick it up outside, and it's a bit faster than waiting in another line for your food order.

Today we did that. The weather was really nice, and we sat at one of the small picnic tables and shared some pizza and frozen yogurt and a chicken bake with Clara. She takes little bits of food from us while she still sits in the shopping cart and watches birds picking up crumbs and older kids running around and playing. So we all just enjoyed the junk food and refillable diet Coke and the breeze. It's a small thing but it's like a nice little family outing bundled in with an errand.

Pic from another Costco "date" a couple weeks ago. Jack is in the bvackground picking up food.

6.7.16 - Voting and losing weight and political work and a MANUSCRIPT!

Actually I nearly for got today was the CA primaries because, like with previous CA primaries, my vote for the Presidential primaries doesn't even really matter at this point, since both the paries I might've voted in have already picked their nominees.

But throughout the day my friends were proudly posting their "I voted" statuses and pics of them with their "I voted" stickers and I thought I should probably at least make the attempt. I didn't get home until about 7:30p (polls close at 8p). I hurried and filled out my choices for the smaller races and at least one proposition, and quickly drove to the HS next door to drop off my ballot.

Dropping off my ballot made me realize: I really like polling place volunteers. Every time I go they are so friendly and there's this camaraderie with everyone showing up at the polls. They can't really care who you're voting for since they don't know who you're voting for, but they just seemed so please to see people voting. And a lot of the people showing up to vote seem pleased about it too. It's a nice atmosphere. And I do like the "I Voted" stickers. So that was kind of fun.

In other happy news, I'm down to 163.5, 1.6lbs below my goal weight. This is great not only because it feels great to be losing weight, but also because it's really solidified for me that I can and have come back from the fatty edge of full term pregnancy. Yeah it took awhile, but it's doable. I don't have to have my youngest child at age 10 and me still saying "it's never been the same since my pregnancies." This makes me feel less anxious and more confident about getting pregnant again.

And it's not just about the weight and body image--although those are big factors. It's also about strength and agility and ability. I'm not athlete, but there's still a huge difference between my body's normal abilities (like right now) and all the limitations I increasingly had during pregnancy. I haven't been pregnant for over a year and yet some days I still think how glad I am that I can take stairs two at a time again, tie my shoes without thinking twice about it, move heavy boxes up and down off shelves in the apartment, and so on. Pregnancy made me really appreciate the abilities of my non-pregnant body.

In other happy news, recently Dad's been paying me to help him with a local political project in his town, and I have really been enjoying it. There's something so satisfying about combing all these sources and all this information to put together one cohesive, strong, somewhat biting counterargument. Plus it's been enjoyable collaboratin with Dad on it because he's so excited about the project, and it really feels like a team effort. And not just any team, but a team that's working together particularly well and being effective. I won't know for awhile whether we'll get the outcome we want (a rejection of a certain proposal) but it seems like we're already mounting more of an opposition than proponents ever expected, so that's something.

I found this while looking for images for our project. Never used it, but still thought it was funny.

And, similarly, I've also been doing more volunteer work recently with SPL. Particularly I'm trying to lay the groundwork for an article about how our movement looks to people from other cultures--not other countries, but other American cultures than my own. I've already done some interviewing and just on a personal level I feel fascinated and intellectually stimulated learning how differently people see the same topic, and learning about points of view I've never really had exposure to. I hope the article I eventually put together will be able to express everything well.

And finally, but maybe most importantly, yesterday my thesis chair told me he thinks my manuscript looks great and only needs a few minor publications to be ready for submission to one of the forensic journals. That is so delightful! Hopefully this means my thesis--which is largely similar in content but slightly different in formatting--will also get his approval quickly and I can pass it on to my other advisors. Great progress!